Somehow, I didn't notice this thread last time it was around. Celsius and I went from next to no scene in Melbourne, to meeting capacity twice over (we had double as many door sales as capacity for the room) with three internationals  in the space of two years.
I've actually been working on a document outlining all the stuff that we have done, both so I have a record, and some day it may be useful to other people

These are my points
a. Your audience is out there, you might just not know it. THEY might not know it. Get as many friends as you can to your shows. Get them to bring their friends. They may show up and then come to every show afterwards.

b. Try different types of advertising. Flyers and posters haven't historically worked for us, so we tend to not do them anymore. But I spam the hell out of the internet. Get involved in forums that have a tenuous link to chip (music forums, video game forums stuff like that). Use facebook and twitter. Local radio is good too, and frequently hard up for something different. We had a chip showcase at an indie games festival. Sure not many people showed up, but they came to SoundBytes afterwards. Try and get the local line music press to come and review your night (have lesbians getting it on in a corner and they'll remember you - trust me!)

c. Charge as little as you can afford to in order get people along at first. Gold coin donation might work, especially if a venue will do you a cut of the bar sales so you can recover some costs

d. Finally, don't over extend yourself. You probably aren't going to pack a 300 venue in the early days. But a little 70 person venue that is packed out, and cheaper for you, and has an amazing vibe from people that want to be there will get people back. Likewise, a monthly show probably won't get people to the same show every month, doing it quarterly will mean that they're excited for the next one.

e. Finally, musicians want to play. You might not have many chip peeps locally, but if you ask nicely and offer them a percentage of your door sales and a place to sleep, and they might just come and play even if they lose money on it but get to hang out and play chip to a crowd

Sorry so long. Believe it or not I had more to say and cut it back

start a forum for your specific city, then only publicise it 3 times...

www.londonchipnet.co.uk

...4

yeah, basically. the more diverse your lineup, the more people you expose to chip music for the first time, which is more people coming to your next shows. but also, it should be one of your goals to set up shows that are well attended. and if i booked a show here with all chip acts, it wouldn't go over well at all because 1. there's not 4 popular chip bands in rochester, 2. most of the out of town bands i book shows for don't have a local fanbase. usually the formula i try to use is this - 1 out of town chip band, 1 local electronic / chip band, 2 local non-chip bands. that way i can get the most people to a show as i can.

For what I understood, it's to book some artists that do not play chip influenced music. Punk, goth, electronic, whatever. Mixing it up is always nicer cause more people will have the chance to know your music.

i've been rereading this thread like mad too. i want to get more of a scene going down here in edmonton. feel embarrassed that toronto is considered "it" when talking about canadatunez.

what do you mean by that exactly?

i re-read this thread a lot.

and march 10th will be the fifth monthly chip show i've set up in rochester. we've been really lucky not only in terms of getting great artists to come play here (anamanaguchi, starscream, g & j, zen albatross, j. arthur keenes, danimal cannon) but also in terms of finding an audience for chip music here. all of the shows have been well attended (and are becoming more well attended every month).

here's what i've learned.

1. communication is extremely important.
2. you can't do it alone. get your friends involved.
3. booking a show isn't enough, you need to promote the hell out of it.
4. develop relationships with local venues.
5. most areas can't support a 100% chip show, so don't book a 100% chip show.
6. look at what the most successful people do and emulate that.
7. learn from your mistakes.

I bet he didn't put up a fight because he didn't want to BRK the law.

if that was me! I would BRK him!

Poor guy. That just pissed me off.

Hey everyone, speaking of boosting the chip scene, food for thought:

I've been thinking about introducing chiptunes to people at conventions;  I've seen people just sitting there rocking out on LSDJ in a corner before, and people would walk by thinking that was a pretty neat concept.  What's stopping us from possibly getting this into the heart of a medium highly-trafficked by people who would be more likely to understand this kind of music?

Examples:  MAGFest, in Virginia, has their own chiptune concert each year.  I'm in talks with another convention about possibly starting up a concert for them in St. Louis, MO if I can find artists who're willing to perform.  One of them near Dallas is rooted in oldschool gaming and would be another possibility.

What are all of your thoughts on this?  Or, perhaps, should I have this moved to another thread?

I lol'd

I think running workshops like this is a really good idea. That way people can have a go without committing to buying anything straight away

I'm definitely keen on this. I plan on putting together a semi regular touring event, which could incorporate workshops etc.

Also, I'm getting close to having a good amount of people for an NZ comp so keep an eye out for that!!

I don't know if it has gone any way towards extending our scene, but putting on a big event has certainly helped to bring together and tighten our scene in Scotland. We had tutorials, busking (as you can see above, it was both well received and hated simultaneously) and other stuff during the day as well.

Get into Fights with old ladies

i think what the scene really needs is more prostitots

make sure you're getting those at shows.

then you'll get more pedo looking older pedophiles.